Syria, Russia, and Iran’s Complicated Relationship

Hello and welcome to the final episode of War College.


Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just becoming Angry Planet.


From time to time we record things that, for whatever reason, don’t quite work. Sometimes the audio is bad. Sometimes the news cycle destroys the story. Sometimes the the very famous, big name podcast host you have on as a guest is clearly drunk and loses his end of the audio. Sometimes you find out the guest is a CIA agent who never set foot in the country he’s talking about and decide to scrap the episode.


The following audio is almost one of those episodes, but I think it’s still worth a listen. Back in May just before Jason returned to the show I talked with the British journalist Gareth Browne about Syria, Russia, and Iran. We talked the geopolitics of the region and what’s been happening since Solemani’s death.


Some of the information here is out of date, and there’s places where the audio is a little … scratchy. But I think this was a good conversation about some vital stuff and I thought it’d be nice to go out on something like this before we officially launch Angry Planet. 


We’re clearing the backlog, so to speak.


Thanks for listening, we’ll miss War College but we know we’ll be happier as Angry Planet.


  • Recording 5/26/20
  • Russia’s goals in Syria
  • The roots of Russia and the Assad family’s relationship
  • How much of the country does Assad still control?
  • Iran backed militias in Syria
  • “War has changed”
  • How the death of Qasem Soleimani changes everything
  • The court politics of Russia, Syria, and Iran
  • The legacy of Hafez al-Assad

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